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M-Prize Challenge

Winners

We launched the Unlimited Human Potential M-Prize to unearth the most progressive practices and boldest ideas for unleashing and mobilizing human capability, wherever it exists. Today, we are delighted to announce the winners of the M-Prize, selected from over one hundred entries from every kind of organization and every corner of the world. Here they are (in alphabetical order):

A clever “work social” platform designed to extend the spirit of coworking beyond actual coworking spaces, to engineer productive matches between individual talents and organizations, and to reimagine the boundaries of the organization in the process.

Lukas Masuch’s hack of knowledge management—a powerful platform to structure, simplify, and render immediately accessible all the relevant knowledge and data so often dispersed and hidden across large organizations.

Accenture’s fresh take on “people development:” transforming it from an HR-driven, discrete activity to a continuous approach woven into the fabric of everyday working life with a series of “micro-actions.”

Special “Idea Accelerator” Prizes

We are also delighted to announce that several entries from the pool of Unlimited Human Potential Challenge finalists have been selected to receive additional prizes, based on their potential to produce a viable app, product, company, or even a movement.

Finalists

Organizations that are built to thrive in the 21st century must focus both on unleashing human capacity—designing environments and systems for work that inspire individuals to contribute their full imagination, initiative, and passion—and on aggregating human capability—leveraging new social, mobile, and digital technologies to activate, enlist, and organize talent across boundaries.

Those are the twin challenges we tackled with the Unlimited Human Potential M-Prize. We put out the call for the most progressive practices and innovative ideas for unleashing human capability. And we asked, how can we tap into emerging digital technologies and the principles that undergird them (such as transparency, collaboration, meritocracy, open­ness, commu­nity and autonomy) to create organizations that are truly fit for human beings?

Today we are delighted to announce the finalists of the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge. We'd also like to offer up our deepest thanks to everyone who contributed to this M-Prize—your initiative, inventiveness and passion have added so much to the challenge of making all of our organizations fit for the future (and genuinely fit for human beings).

When it comes to building management and business models that are fit for the 21st century, one of the fundamental challenges is developing organizations that are capable of discovering, nurturing, aggregating, and appropriately rewarding contributions from employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders across boundaries.

Specifically, organizations that are built to thrive in the Innovation Economy focus both on unleashing human capacity—designing environments and systems for work that inspire individuals to contribute their full imagination, initiative, and passion every day—and on aggregating human capability—leveraging new social, mobile, and digital technologies to activate, enlist, and organize talent across boundaries.

In other words, the organizations and individuals who design clever ways to invert the pyramid and to shift from the static value chain to value-creating networks, win.

Now, more than ever before, leaders must recognize the value of individual contribution. Individual ingenuity, initiative, and passion are the fuel of the Innovation Economy. Yet, these deeply human qualities cannot easily be corralled, commanded or “ordered up” from on high. They must be properly invited, nurtured, and inspired. This means that organizations must become increasingly inventive in devising new models of engagement that emphasize the power of the individual over command and control. And it means that the work of leadership must increasingly focus on energizing and enlarging the community rather than managing it from the top-down.

The good news is that the Social Web and other digital technologies and platforms offer a robust set of alternatives to industrial-era forms of organizing. We now can imagine organizations where . . .

. . . coordination happens without centraliza­tion,

. . . where power is the product of contribution rather than posi­tion,

. . . where the wisdom of the many trumps the authority of the few,

. . . where novel viewpoints get amplified rather than squelched,

. . . where commu­nities form spontane­ously around shared interests,

. . . where opportuni­ties to “opt-in” blur the line between vocation and hobby, where titles and credentials count for less than value-added,

. . . where perfor­mance is judged by your peers

. . . where influence comes from sharing information, not from hoarding it.

The even better news is that these new approaches and technologies are available to just about anyone—from global companies to emerging startups to individual innovators to citizen groups to cross-sector initiatives. That’s why we are launching the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge—to unearth and celebrate the individuals and institutions who are working to create real value and to improve lives in a meaningful way.

We are seeking the most progressive practices and innovative ideas for unleashing human capability to produce radically new approaches to organizing, competing, and creating advantage. How can we tap into emerging digital technologies and the principles that undergird them (such as transparency, collaboration, meritocracy, open­ness, commu­nity and self-determination) to imagine the future of business?

Now it’s up to you. What are you or your organization doing, or what could you be doing, to unleash and capture human capability, wherever it exists? Make a case for how your management hack or business model innovation creates a real impact—in your organization and beyond. By sharing a bleeding edge case study or contrib­uting a pioneering idea, you can help shape the future of business. The ultimate prize? A better run world.

There is a lingering notion in the world of business and beyond that organizations are things with four walls, that employees are people who report to work inside them every day for years on end, that work is a matter of executing on defined “KPIs,” and that success is a product of climbing ladders and exerting an ever-greater span of control.

We are at a genuine inflection point when it comes to how we organize human effort to productive ends. In this creative and disruptive economy, where the challenge is to inspire and mobilize the full imagination, initiative, and passion of every single person, every single day, leaders must rethink their organization’s boundaries, redesign work, redefine the work of leadership, and re-jigger their measure of value.

The Unlimited Human Potential Challenge is in full swing. We’ve got so many exciting Stories and Hacks in the pipeline—and such exciting rewards for those who contribute—that we’re extending the deadline.

It’s the most universal and intractable challenge leaders in organizations of every stripe in every realm of endeavor face: how do you spread success? How do you take local victories—profound insights, clever inventions, powerful connections—and weave them into the broader fabric of an organization? How do you replicate the mindset and approaches of the most productive, compelling, and creative individuals across a whole system? How do you scale the best and leave the rest?

When it comes to building management and business models that are fit for the 21st century, one of the fundamental challenges is developing organizations that are capable of discovering, nurturing, aggregating, and appropriately rewarding contributions from employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders across boundaries.

What does it mean to create a genuine culture of innovation and collaboration—one in which every single person in the organization is switched on, alive and awake to the changes in the world and ready to contribute their ideas, insights, and particular point of view?

With the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge, we are seeking the most progressive practices and innovative ideas for unleashing human capability to produce radically new approaches to organizing, competing, and creating advantage. How can we tap into emerging digital technologies and the principles that undergird them (such as transparency, collaboration, meritocracy, open­ness, commu­nity and self-determination) to imagine the future of business?

The mega challenge behind so many of the major challenges leaders face in the transition from the industrial to the innovation era is ultimately one of transcending tradeoffs. How do we make profit and purpose, scale and humanity, competition and community, focus and collaboration, discipline and creativity, power and generosity, individual and institution, “both/and’s” rather than “either/or’s?”

With the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge, we are seeking the most progressive practices and innovative ideas when it comes to unleashing human capacity—designing environments and systems for work that inspire individuals to contribute their full imagination, initiative, and passion every day; and aggregating human capability—leveraging new social, mobile, and digital technologies to activate, enlist, and organize talent across boundaries.

If there’s one question on the minds of leaders everywhere, it is (or should be): How do I unleash the full ingenuity, initiative, and passion of every single person in my organization—and relevant to my organization—every single day?

We recently ran an open brainstorming session we call a “Quick MIX” focused on generating bold ideas around the themes of the recently-launched SAP Unlimited Human Potential Challenge. The question on the table: What is the one thing you’d change to help organizations unleash and organize human potential across boundaries?

The first and most important truth any leader must understand is that the human beings who work inside every kind of organization possess unlimited potential. They have the ability to solve any problem and the adaptability to respond to unforeseen circumstances. It may be the most overworked truism in the business world, but employees are indeed the most valuable resource and asset that any company has.

When it comes to building management and business models that are fit for the 21st century, one of the fundamental challenges is developing organizations that are capable of discovering, nurturing, aggregating, and appropriately rewarding contributions from employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders across boundaries.

Pages

Submit a Hack (a disruptive idea, radical fix, or experimental design) or a Story (a real-world case study of a single practice, an initiative, or a broad-based transformation) on the subject of how organizations and leaders have tackled (or could tackle) two urgent challenges: 1) redistributing power in a way that gives many more individuals an opportunity to lead, and 2) equipping and energizing people to lead even when they lack formal authority.

MIXers may (and are encouraged to) team up to co-author submissions. To work collaboratively, one MIX member needs to start a Story or Hack and then add other MIX members as participants by entering their MIX usernames in the co-author field. All listed authors will have edit access to the Story or Hack.

Submissions may draw on secondary source materials but should be based primarily on first-hand experience or an original idea. In every case, be sure to credit all those who contributed to your story or hack and provide citations to external reference material.

The Unlimited Human Potential Challenge will unfold in two stages: a preliminary submission phase ending March 31, 2014 and a final round in which finalists develop their entries further based on feedback from the MIX editorial team and community, ending May 10, 2014.

All entries will be judged by our panel of leading management thinkers and progressive practitioners, including (more judges to be announced shortly):

Winners of the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge will receive significant recognition on the MIX, by SAP, and our media partner. Winners will also earn the chance to be recognized and share their contributions at SAP’s annual SAPPHIRE NOW event (June 3-5, 2014) and the MIX Mashup (Fall 2014).

For the first time ever, these winners will be eligible for an additional suite of prizes, what we’re calling the Idea Accelerator. Based on their potential to make a genuine impact—specifically, the potential to produce a viable app, product, company, or even a movement—up to three winners will win:

*A design thinking workshop with experts from SAP Labs to further develop, prototype, and possibly scale the idea

*A mentoring session with executives from SAP Ventures, including introductions to business incubators and/or angel investors

*Additionally, depending on the results of interviews conducted by the SAP Ventures team and the market potential of the winning entry, one of these entrants could also win up to USD $50,000 in funding from SAP Ventures, to go towards the formation of a new start-up company or venture. (Special consideration for this optional award will be given to entries with the potential to leverage SAP HANA.)

Please note: while the prize purse will focus on contributions with the potential to leverage SAP’s HANA technology, the MIX and the judging team will consider all contributions equally. Any Story or Hack that meets the Challenge Brief has the potential to make it to the winner’s circle.

We asked the question: What is the one thing you'd change to help organizations unleash and organize human potential across boundaries? See all of the bold ideas from the Quick MIX.